I've always been inspired by the polymath that is Lady Gaga, but especially her 2008 song 'Born this Way'. In the song, Gaga celebrates diversity with the line 'Don't be a drag just be a queen', which directly inspired this piece.

​As a Monash ally, College head and educator – I'm proud to live, learn and work beside people of all gender identities at Monash. In this work I am to celebrate the diversity of the Monash community, but also remind us that it's not the same everywhere else. Transgender people in thirteen countries live under specific laws that criminalise them, punishing them with prison, corporal punishment and, where anti-gay laws are also used against trans people, death. De facto criminalisation of trans people also occurs in 37 other countries, and countless more condone or tolerate discrimination in many forms.

It's our collective responsibility to respect and promote gender diversity in all facets of life, both at and outside work.